Some autostereoscopic screens are referred to as multiview displays. Such a screen has a pixel matrix with a plurality of pixels and also an optical grid arranged in front of the pixel matrix. The pixels of the pixel matrix are arranged such that they form a plurality of columns arranged equidistantly side by side with a column direction that is vertical or inclined relative to a vertical, wherein the optical grid has a group of strip-shaped structures oriented parallel to the columns and arranged equidistantly side by side and gives light originating from the pixels at least one defined propagation plane, which is spanned from a defined horizontal propagation direction and the column direction. In the case of an autostereoscopic screen of this type, a period length of the optical grid, said period length being defined by a lateral offset of adjacent strip-shaped structures, is greater by a factor n×Ln/(Ln+a) than a lateral offset of the directly adjacent columns, wherein “a” denotes an effective distance between the pixel matrix and the optical grid, Ln denotes a nominal viewing distance of the autostereoscopic screen, and n denotes an integer greater than two. The distance “a” in the terminology selected is denoted as effective distance because the optical grid has a finite depth, which in some circumstances is also true for the pixels of the pixel matrix. The value of the effective distance can therefore be determined in some circumstances with absolute precision by evaluating the optical properties of the screen, such as by analysing a position of what are known as the viewing zones.
In some uses of such multiview screens, the columns of pixels are distributed in cyclical order from left to right between n sub-quantities, wherein one of n stereoscopic fields of image is then reproduced on each of these n sub-quantities. Due to the above-mentioned correlation between the period length of the optical grid and the lateral offset of the columns of pixels, the geometric properties of the screen then cause n viewing zones arranged side by side to be provided at the nominal viewing distance Ln in front of the screen, from each of which viewing zones one of the fields of image is visible. The screen can be dimensioned such that a lateral offset of the directly adjacent viewing zones is approximately the same size as or insignificantly larger than the distance between both eyes of an average pair of eyes. The lateral offset of adjacent viewing zones, however, may also be much smaller in some circumstances and for example may correspond to half or a quarter of the distance between the eyes. The stereoscopic fields of image are now selected so as to be complementary to one another, such that the wholly or partially visible fields of image supplement one another in each case to form a stereo image. The fields of image each reproduce the same scene to be reproduced and differ from one another only by different parallaxes. Any viewer who places themself in front of the screen such that their eyes are located within a region spanned by the viewing zones, moreover in two different viewing zones, can thus perceive the scene autostereoscopically—that is to say without further aids—in a manner that appears to be three dimensional.
However, the region from which the reproduced scene can be perceived three-dimensionally is very limited, such as to a relatively narrow distance region around the mentioned nominal viewing distance. As soon as the viewer leaves the specified region, such as when the distance of the viewer from the screen deviates more than just slightly from the nominal viewing distance, the three-dimensional impression is lost or is at least falsified, and in any case the image quality becomes considerably poorer.